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April 30, 1998, Thursday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section A; Page 20; Column 1; National Desk

HEADLINE: Teen-Age Poll Finds a Turn to the Traditional

BYLINE: By LAURIE GOODSTEIN with MARJORIE CONNELLY

BODY:
They carry beepers, prefer permanent tattoos to body piercing and are just about as likely to take lessons in shooting guns as they are to play musical instruments. Four in 10 personally know someone who is gay or lesbian, and 6 in 10 say distributing condoms in schools is a good idea.

Teen-agers today are worldly, shaped by exposure to a culture that has dropped many of its inhibitions, according to a nationwide poll of 13- to 17-year-olds conducted by The New York Times and CBS News.

Yet, the same poll suggests, in some ways they are as wholesome and devoid of cynicism as the generation that wore saddle shoes. They trust their government, admire their parents and believe it is possible to start out poor and become rich. Ninety-four percent say they believe in God. Strong majorities say they never drink alcohol and never smoke cigarettes or marijuana.

On sexual matters, too, they display a notable conservatism. Almost half say sex before marriage is "always wrong" (53 percent of girls agree, and 41 percent of boys). Fifty-eight percent of boys and 47 percent of girls say homosexuality is "always wrong."

Fewer than one in four say they have ever had sex, but 71 percent say "a lot" or "some" of the other students at their schools are having sex. And almost half of the same teen-agers who say they disapprove of premarital sex favor condom distribution in schools.

"People are going to have sex, and they should have protected sex," said Brett Adam Abel, a 15-year-old from Apopka, Fla., who participated in the poll and agreed to a follow-up interview. "They should have the chance to prevent herpes, AIDS and stuff."

When asked to name the biggest problem faced by teen-agers today, 39 percent said drugs, about the same percentage as in a poll of teen-agers conducted by The Times and CBS News four years ago. The number who said that violence or crime was the biggest problem facing their generation has dropped dramatically -- to 7 percent, from 22 percent in 1994. The drop may reflect an actual decrease in crime nationally, as documented by Federal statistics.

Still, when the youths were asked what they considered the biggest problem in their schools, 16 percent said violence, the most frequent response. The survey followed a wave of shootings at schools in recent months, most notably the killing of four students and a teacher in Jonesboro, Ark., in late March.

"Fights mainly, nothing with guns or anything," said Alison Brown, 14, who attends a public school in Cincinnati. "They don't happen as much as they used to; now it's about once a week. There's less of it because our school has taken tighter control."

Guns are a part of many teen-agers' lives, the poll found. Nearly 4 in 10 say a member of their household owns a gun, and 15 percent say they themselves own one. Thirty-one percent have had instruction in shooting.

Only 2 percent said abortion or pregnancy was the biggest problem facing teen-agers. Only 1 percent said it was AIDS. Yet 18 percent said they personally knew someone who had tested positive for H.I.V., had AIDS or had died of AIDS.

The poll, of 1,048 teen-agers, was conducted by telephone from April 2 through April 7 and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. Many of the responses concerning behavior -- on smoking, drinking and sex, for instance -- varied widely between younger and older teen-agers. Only 13 percent of 13- to 15-year-olds said they had ever had sex, for example, as against 38 percent of 16- and 17-year-olds.

The poll makes clear that the post-cold-war generation is coming of age free of preoccupation about nuclear weapons and the survival of the planet. When asked to think about their future, 28 percent said that what worried them most was getting a good job. Eleven percent said it was having enough money, and 9 percent said being successful. Only 3 percent said that what worried them most was the environment.

Defying a stereotype, these teen-agers were short on criticism of their parents. Fifty-one percent said they got along with their parents "very well," and 46 percent said "fairly well." Nearly two-thirds said their parents were "in touch with what life is like" for today's teen-agers. And 48 percent said they even enjoyed the same types of music as their parents.

But 55 percent agreed that there were times when they had something they wanted to talk to their parents about, but did not. Of these, four out of five said the reason was that their parents "won't understand," and most of the rest said their parents were simply too busy.

When they go out, 89 percent said, they have to tell their parents where they are going.

"She's very protective, and sometimes that's a problem," Mary Spivey, 17, a high school junior in Jacksonville, Fla., said of her mother, "but I know that it's really for the best. I'm glad I can't get away with what some of my friends do. She is in touch with what's going on with me, because I tell her a lot of what's going on. So she doesn't automatically say no on everything. She really weighs the consequences."

When asked whom they admired most, 44 percent of girls and 18 percent of boys named their mother. Fathers did not rank as highly; 26 percent of boys and 8 percent of girls said their father was the person they admired most. Some named grandmothers or grandfathers. Five percent said they admired both parents. Nine percent of boys named a sports figure. Five percent of girls named a celebrity.

Girls have a lower self-image than boys: 39 percent of girls and 54 percent of boys said they felt very positive about themselves over all. When they were asked the one thing they would like to change about themselves, the most frequent answer from boys and girls alike was "my looks" or "my body" (36 percent of girls, 28 percent of boys). The percentage of teen-agers who wanted to change their looks or body was significantly higher than four years ago.

Steven Pyszka, a hockey-playing 17-year-old from Warrenville Ill., said he would like "to be more physically fit, muscular-wise."

"I'm not the world's strongest person," Steve said. "I would like to be more built in a way."

On some political issues, teen-agers' views diverged sharply from those of their parents. Six in 10 teen-agers said that "when there has been discrimination against blacks in the past," blacks should be given preference in the workplace and in college admissions. Only 35 percent of adults held that view in a Times/CBS News Poll in December.

Fifty percent of teen-agers said you could trust the government to do what is right always or most of the time; only 26 percent of adults agreed with that in January.

A majority of the teen-agers approve of the way President Clinton is doing his job, and consider the Lewinsky episode a "private matter" for the President. Those opinions almost mirror those of adults.

How the Poll Was Conducted

The New York Times/CBS News Poll of American teen-agers is based on telephone interviews conducted April 2 to April 7 with 1,048 teen-agers throughout the United States.

Fewer than 1 in 5 households contains a teen-ager from the age of 13 through 17. Thus, from September 1997 through March 1998, the poll asked on each of its regular adult surveys if a teen-ager lived in the home. The households saying yes were subsequently called for the poll of teen-agers. If a household had two or more teen-agers, one teen-ager was randomly designated to be surveyed.

The original samples of telephone exchanges were randomly selected by a computer from a complete list of more than 42,000 active residential exchanges across the country.

Within each exchange, random digits were added to form a complete telephone number, thus permitting access to both listed and unlisted numbers.

The results have been weighted to adjust for the number of teen-agers in the household, the number of telephone lines into the residence, region, race, sex, age, and education of parents.

In theory, in 19 cases out of 20, the poll results will differ by no more than three percentage points in either direction from what would have been obtained by seeking out all American teen-agers. For smaller subgroups, the potential sampling error is larger.

GRAPHIC: Chart: "The Talk Among Teen-Agers"
14% have their own car
17% have their own telephone number
18% have a beeper or pager
66% have their own television in their room
49% have a part-time job

FAVORITE TELEVISION NETWORKS
Fox: 18%
NBC: 11
MTV: 9
ABC: 8
CBS: 7

FAVORITE TYPE OF MUSIC
Alternative: 21%
Rap: 21
Rhythm and blues: 14
Rock: 12
Country: 8

TV AND COMPUTERS
Average weekday hours spent watching television: 3.9
Average weekday hours spent on a home computer: 2.5
Average weekday hours spent on line: 1.9

PERCENTAGE OF TEEN-AGERS WHO HAVE A FIREARM OF ANY KIND IN THEIR HOUSEHOLD

HAVE THEIR OWN
Northeast: 10%
Midwest: 16
South: 19
West: 12

SOMEONE ELSE HAS
Northeast: 28%
Midwest: 41
South: 43
West: 35

PERCENTAGE WHO HAVE RIDDEN IN CAR DRIVEN RECKLESSLY BY ANOTHER TEEN-AGER THIS SCHOOL YEAR

AGE
13-15: 22%
16-17: 58

PERCENTAGE WHO SAY THEY HAVE BEEN A VICTIM OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Boys: 7%
Girls: 29
Girls who have part-time jobs: 36
16- and 17-year-old girls: 42
16- and 17-year-old girls with jobs: 49

WHAT ABOUT BODY PIERCING? (OTHER THAN EAR LOBES)

GIRLS
Have body piercing: 6%
Would like to get it: 25
Like it but wouldn't want it: 37
Don't like it at all: 32

BOYS
Have body piercing: 3%
Would like to get it: 11
Like it but wouldn't want it: 30
Don't like it at all: 56

WHAT ABOUT PERMANENT TATTOOS?

GIRLS
Have a tattoo: 5%
Would like to get it: 31
Like it but wouldn't want it: 31
Don't like it at all: 31

BOYS
Have a tattoo: 5%
Would like to get it: 34
Like it but wouldn't want it: 30
Don't like it at all: 31

Based on telephone interviews with 1,048 teen-agers aged 13 through 17 conducted nationwide April 2-7. Average hours spent on a computer is based on those who have a home computer. Average hours spent on line is based on those who have on-line access.

Photos: (Chris Maynard for The New York Times; Jim Wilson/The New York Times; Photofest)